Rod Stewart, ‘It’s Over’ – Song Review

It's less than a month before the May 7 release date of Rod Stewart's new album, 'Time.' Yesterday (April 15) he unveiled 'It's Over.'

In the lyric, Stewart describes a marriage that is ending in an acrimonious divorce after only five years. He runs through a litany of everything involved -- the lawyers, the damage to the kids, the effects on their shared friendships -- all of which nails home the point that they're past the point of reconciliation.

The song is a bit too literal and specific for most people to put their own experiences into it. A bit of ambiguity would have gone a long way towards making it more universal, but there's still enough here with which anyone who's had a long relationship end can identify.

Still, as with 'She Makes Me Happy,' it's probably about as good as you can expect from Stewart these days, and it's considerably better than 'Finest Woman.' Then again, Stewart's breakup songs are traditionally better than his love songs. The production is crystal-clear, even if the string-heavy arrangement -- complete with a telegraphed key change -- is a bit schmaltzy. The performances, including Stewart's vocals, are first-rate.

With any Rod Stewart breakup song, you reflexively think, "Which of his supermodel ex-wives or girlfriends inspired this one?" But keep in mind that, even though Stewart has been married to his third wife, Penny Lancaster, since 2007, his first marriage, to Alana Hamilton, lasted only five years, from 1979-84.

While that may seem like ancient history, keep in mind that, in the press release that announced 'Time's' arrival, Stewart admitted that working on his autobiography jarred loose some memories that kick-started the lyric-writing process. Although we can't say that this is specifically about his divorce from Hamilton, we're at least glad that he's not singing about the end of his habit of taking cocaine anally.